03.09.11
Like middle age, the term “old vine” has no precise definition, and is subject to continual revision, with some wags putting the threshold for “old vine” as always older than themselves. When speaking of Zinfandel, most vintners agree on vines that are 50-plus years. Many were planted as far back as the 1880s through 1910s, are dry-farmed by default, have deep root systems and yield a modest but concentrated, consistent crop in their golden years. These vines know who they are, and so should we recognize them in the
